Mariano Carrasco PRESIDENT Digong Duterte prides himself with being a socialist. Bernie Sanders, the American presidential candidate who lost to Hillary Clinton by a small margin as nominee for the Democratic Party also calls himself a “socialist.” Leaders of  France, Great Britain, Sweden, The Netherlands, and other European states somehow call their societies “socialists” or sometimes, “welfare states.” Jose Maria Sison, Satur Ocampo, Luis Jalandoni, and many other members of the CPP-NPA-NDF, at one time or another, call themselves “socialists.” Some political experts would describe some governments or  societies  as “socialist” or “communist”, and these two words are loosely being interchanged as if they are synonymous. North Korea calls itself “communist” though it looks more like a dictatorial and monarchical government. Academics, political experts, and even the books, have a general though sometimes indefinite concept of  what “socialism” really is. However, there is one concept that is generally placed as a contrast to or which is considered as the opposite of “socialism,” that is “capitalism.” Adam Smith of Scotland is considered as the ideological fountainhead of capitalism. This politico-economic philosophy or socio-economic system is anchored on the principle of free enterprise or laissez faire wherein it is believed that allowing free competition in the market and allowing every individual to pursue his economic interests and compete freely without government intervention would produce the best and cheapest products and services, weed out the incompetent and inefficient, and would therefore maximize the benefits for society at large.  In simple terms, capitalism is akin to the law of the jungle where the strongest or fittest survives, and the weak would perish or be eliminated. In real life however, there is no such thing as non-intervention by government. Government has been created to balance the forces,  to lay down the rules for everyone, to regulate the market and prices, to impose taxes, to build roads and bridges and give welfare to and protect the poor and impoverished. Government has been created to intervene. What troubles us though is the fact that sometimes government can be dominated by the rich and powerful, the landed elite and oligarchs, by local and foreign multinational corporations, most of whom would run as candidates for political office or would provide  campaign funds come election time for their puppets and subalterns. We have seen it here in the Philippines. You just cannot campaign for high political positions if you don’t  spend hundreds of millions of pesos or align yourself with well-financed political parties, and if you don’t buy votes. The armed Left has gone a long way to assert itself, especially in the countryside. It is difficult for President Duterte to convince them to come to peaceful terms if he belittles them. Even in boxing, one must have a healthy respect for the opponent to outbox him. He should not ridicule them for not having won in the elections because everybody knows the effects of campaign funds and vote-buying on the impoverished masses, and the power of the elite-controlled mass media. Indeed, the bloodshed needs to stop. So many military and policemen, armed rebels and civilians have died, and this armed conflict has indeed retarded development. But Duterte and this government must address the root causes of the insurgency. He has called Roberto Ongpin an “oligarch” and has appointed Judy Taguiwalo and Rafael Mariano to cabinet positions. Duterte describes himself as a socialist. But as the saying goes, “a swallow does not a summer make.” (Mariano B. Carrasco is a lawyer based in Cagayan de Oro.)